Thursday, June 24, 2004

Starving Local Firms: But the most outrageous policy of the Bush administration is a prohibition on allowing existing Iraq firms to receive any funding for reconstruction of the country.

Repeat that, just in case you aren't aware of the policy. If you work for Halliburton in the United States, you can get a job reconstructing Iraq. If you work for established state-owned firms in Iraq, your firm can't receive a contract . . . .

Continuing Hussein's Labor Policies: And here is the real civic outrage. The Bush administration has invited mullahs into the process to write the national constitution, but labor unions and other workers groups have been excluded from the process of writing the labor code for the country . . . .

There is, of coure, more, and none of it good. You know, I have to wonder: what sort of country Bush is trying to build there? From the look of it, it's one where unions are marginalized and weakened, where work that might be done by Iraqis is done by foreigners, and where the government is run by fundamentalists friendly to BushCo.